


Sailor's Delight

by peach_pot



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Aquarium AU, M/M, Virgil and Patton and Remus are all coworkers which is fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peach_pot/pseuds/peach_pot
Summary: Virgil works at an aquarium and starts researching the marine life they have so he can teach a new visitor, Logan, all about the animals in their exhibits.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 52
Kudos: 119





	Sailor's Delight

Virgil sat behind the desk at his latest job, one at the local aquarium, tapping a pen on the side of the computer monitor, bored out of his mind. After a collection of short-lasting positions he always seemed to find himself being fired from, this was the longest he’d ever been employed at one place. No matter what the position, he would end up eventually making some rude quip at a coworker or god forbid a customer that was the last straw before his boss broke the news. Sure, talking back to customers was not a great move when you needed to hold down a job, but Virgil just couldn’t help it sometimes. It was an instinct he’d had since he was a kid. If you’re mean to someone first you get the upper hand; at best it was a survival strategy from years of bullying and at worst a one-way ticket to unemployment. 

But this job was different. On one of his first days, he’d met Patton Foley, one of the employees Virgil crossed paths with at work most frequently, and the closest friend Virgil had made in a very long time. Having a ray of sunshine like him around to keep his head up and make him smile made it a lot easier for Virgil to swallow down any urges to snipe at particularly bothersome visitors. 

He was happy at the aquarium, and especially grateful there were positions like his available that didn’t involve working with the marine life directly and therefore didn’t require a degree in marine biology or any similar fields. He liked watching the fish in their tanks, swimming in endless loops with no awareness of the repetitive cycle they’d be stuck in for the rest of their lives. Somehow it calmed him down when he needed it most. 

He was able to see Patton far more often than he would if they worked separately, which was a plus. Patton was always gushing to Virgil about the possible exhibits they might be getting (but rarely ever did) and exhibits they already had that were favorites of his. He turned some of the most frustrating shifts into manageable ones, which Virgil needed on days where busloads of kids came in on school field trips, jabbing their fingers at the glass and screaming at any animal that looked slightly scarier than a clownfish.

Besides Patton, the only employee Virgil felt in any way close to was Remus King. Remus was… a lot, to say the least. He had only applied for the job to be closer to and learn more about the animals he had deemed terrifying. Now that he worked here, he had learned that most creatures people think are scary are nothing of the sorts, and he spent as much of his shifts as possible telling as many kids as he could which animals were harmless and which should be feared. Virgil hated Remus when he first started, but with time they became friends. At first, Virgil only tolerated him for Patton’s sake, seeing as Patton and Remus were already friends when Virgil started, but eventually, he grew to appreciate Remus in and of himself. 

Today began as a day like any other at the aquarium. For the first third of his shift, Virgil worked behind the desk, selling people their tickets, telling them where to find different exhibits, informing them of what events were being held that day. Though it very quickly grew unbearably boring on slow days, he didn’t mind this part of his shift as much as he knew Patton and Remus did. They both preferred what he was supposed to do during the rest of the day: walking around exhibits making sure no kids were touching the glass, answering questions about whatever creatures they were looking at, helping people interpret the map of the aquarium no one ever seemed to be able to properly read. That part was always more stressful for Virgil. Nearly constant interaction with strangers who were always coming to him with millions of questions wasn’t his forte. And so, as often as he could, he would make deals with Patton and Remus to switch positions when they were supposed to be behind the desk. Their manager didn’t care who was where at the end of the day as long as someone was there to help visitors in all areas. 

This system worked well for the three of them. When Virgil would be scheduled to stop working the desk, Patton would simply ask if they could switch and Virgil would stay right where he liked to be, and a few hours later Remus would do the same. Most days Virgil didn’t leave that spot until closing unless one of their other coworkers was scheduled to work the desk. 

As Virgil continued tapping his pen, checking the clock to see how long it would be before Patton came skipping up to him making sure it was alright for him to stay out in the exhibits, the bell sat on the desk rang, bringing Virgil back to reality from wherever his mind had been wandering. 

Virgil looked up to the person who had rung the bell, a serious-looking man wearing spectacles, a button-up shirt, and a deep blue necktie. 

_ Who the fuck wears a necktie to an aquarium?  _ Virgil thought to himself.

“Welcome to Sanders Aquarium, sir. Admission for one?” Virgil said instead.

“Yes,” the formally dressed man said, pulling out his wallet.

“That’ll be 20 dollars,” Virgil said, before adding on. “It’s only an extra ten to attend the next guided learning event.” Virgil hated the upselling he was always required to attempt, but he knew his boss would find out somehow if he didn’t do it.

“Just the regular admission today,” the man said, handing Virgil his card.

“Do you have a membership with us?” Virgil asked. He was supposed to ask that before taking a customer’s card, but even after over a month working here he found himself forgetting.

The man smiled. “No, but I would love one.” It almost caught Virgil off guard, seeing such a pleasant expression on someone who seemed so serious a moment before. He smiled back, almost instinctually.

“Alright. The membership includes free admission into the aquarium and up to three free entries into specific events each month. It’s 25 dollars a month, or you can pay 75 dollars now to get a permanent membership,” Virgil said.

“I’ll pay the 75 dollars. I anticipate I’ll be coming here quite often.”

“Alright, let me get that set up real quick then.” 

He swiped his card, glancing up at the man as he did. Now that he was smiling Virgil couldn’t help thinking how cute his smile was. He looked back to the computer’s screen as soon as the thought found its way into his head.

“Name?”

“Logan Myers.”

_ Logan Myers,  _ Virgil repeated in his head. The name suited him.

Virgil continued setting up Logan’s account, asking for his address and email, all the while wondering if this was his first time visiting the aquarium. He suspected it was based on the fact that he was just now buying a membership despite being so excited to do so, but there was a chance he’d come in here on the weekend when Virgil had the days off. Virgil doubted he’d come in here during his shift before. He wouldn’t forget seeing him, Virgil was sure.

“You’re all set,” Virgil said, returning the card. “I’ll just need to stamp your hand.”

As Virgil took Logan’s hand, stamping the back of his palm so a little pufferfish appeared in dark blue ink, he asked “Is this your first time visiting?”

“It is. I moved here recently,” Logan said, examining the stamp for a moment.

“Well, glad to have you as a new member,” Virgil said, slipping back into his customer service voice, only then realizing it had slipped away a moment before.

“Glad to  _ be  _ a new member, Virgil.”

Virgil stared at him in confusion for a moment before remembering the name tag pinned to his chest.  _ Oh. Yeah. _

“Enjoy your visit,” he called out as Logan made his way towards the first exhibit.

Virgil leaned back in his chair just a bit and tipped his head up towards the ceiling. 

_ Logan Myers. _

Before Virgil could think any longer, a different visitor was at the desk asking about an exhibit, and he helped them with a smile that felt a little less forced than usual.

* * *

The next day Virgil was behind the desk again, tapping his pen and checking the clock just the same, when Logan returned. Same glasses, same tie, same neutral expression. That is until Virgil gave him a smile, and his own from the day before returned, just as lovely as Virgil had remembered (and he had remembered). 

“Logan,” Virgil said. “Back already.”

“Indeed. It’s nice to see you again Virgil,” Logan said.

“You too,” Virgil said, feeling his smile grow just a bit wider. “Any interest in today’s guided learning event? It will be starting in a couple hours.”

“No thank you. Just the regular admission today.”

Virgil nodded, taking that day’s stamp out. He motioned for Logan to give him his hand, pressing down with the stamp for a few moments, leaving a little dark blue starfish on his skin. Logan gave it a look and nodded.

“Thank you,” he said as he turned and made his way to the exhibit. 

Even after he left Virgil could feel the warmth that came from holding his hand as he stamped it linger on his palm. Just as Logan disappeared into the first exhibit, Patton came out, immediately breaking out a shiny grin when he saw Virgil looking his way.

“Virgil! How is my sweetest, handsome-est, most favorite-est bestest friend in the whole world doing?” he asked.

Even though it had been nearly a full month since Virgil had first started taking over behind the desk when Patton was scheduled to, Patton always buttered him up as much as possible before asking.

“Just fine Pat,” Virgil said.

“I was just coming to make sure it was alright if I stayed with all the kiddos lookin at the fish today while you stayed behind the desk.”

“Actually, I was wondering if I could spend some time in the exhibits today like I’m scheduled to?” Virgil asked.

“Oh,” Patton said. “If you wanna of course that’s alright kiddo. Gee, it’s been a long time since I was stuck behind this desk.”

“Sorry,” Virgil said.

“Oh, no worries! I get to be by the animals all day, one shift behind the desk won’t kill me. You have fun over there alright?”

Virgil nodded. Patton was kind as always. And luckily not at all curious as to why Virgil had a sudden interest in working the exhibits.

The way the aquarium was set up, the exhibits were in a big loop, one room leading to the other until you eventually found yourself in a gift shop connected back to the first exhibit and an exit. There was the occasional visitor that complained that they’d have to walk all the way through the rest of the exhibits to get to the last few, something that always got on Virgil’s nerves considering it took under five minutes to walk through the full loop if you didn’t stop to look at any animals. 

He made his way towards the first exhibit, one filled with a wide selection of different types of fish. Upon entering he quickly scanned the room. There weren’t many people there (they weren’t exactly busy midday on a Thursday), just a family with a handful of kids, an older couple, and, by the tank closest to the entrance, Logan Myers.

Virgil hesitantly made his way over to where Logan was standing. This was his job, to approach people looking at the different forms of marine life in the aquarium and tell them a little about the creatures before letting them know to come to him with any questions they may have, but it had been so long since Virgil worked beyond the desk that he felt even more awkward than he used to just approaching someone out of the blue. Part of him, despite coming here with the intent of talking to Logan, wished one of the people in the room would come to him with a question about an event or exhibit so he could work on that instead, if just for a moment. That was most of the reason they had employees in the exhibits anyways, that and supervising kids too young to be trusted not to lick the glass.

He took a breath and made his way to Logan’s side, as Logan stared at the fish. This tank he was looking at contained a selection of freshwater tropical fish that could all coexist in the same tank without any problems arising. While Virgil didn’t know loads about most of the fish in the tank, he was required to learn the absolute basics about all the marine life in the aquarium, so he knew a few things he could mention.

“That striped fish there,” Virgil said, drawing Logan’s attention to him before pointing to one of the fish, “is called a zebra danio. We’ve got quite a few of them here because they need to be kept in groups. They enjoy having a community.”

Logan nodded. “These groups: do they have to be completely comprised of zebra danios or will groups of other danios or even fish of similar size and shape function similarly?”

Virgil paused. That he didn’t know. He had pretty much just recited everything he knew about these fish, not expecting any follow up questions. “That’s… a good question. Well, we’ve got a few other types of danios in here, along with some common mollies and green swordtails. They can all inhabit the same tank without any issues.”

Logan nodded again, and Virgil was positive he realized how Virgil had danced around the question without answering it at all. 

“I’ve got to return to the front desk, but if you have any further questions, my coworker, Patton should be here to help,” Virgil said, quickly, hoping to escape before Logan could ask any other questions he didn’t have the answers to.

“Alright,” Logan said. “It was nice talking to you again, Virgil. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, bye.”

It wasn’t until Virgil was already out of the room that he processed Logan’s words fully. 

_ I’ll see you tomorrow.  _ That certainly gave Virgil something to look forward to.

“Back so soon?” Patton said as Virgil made his way back to the desk. “Does this mean I can go back to the exhibits?” 

“Sure does,” Virgil said. 

Patton nearly squealed as he ran out from behind the desk. He never seemed to get tired of looking at and telling people about fish. Before he could get too far Virgil called out to him.

“Hey, Pat, wait. You know lots about all the animals we’ve got here right?”

“I sure do!”

“And that’s not what you went to school for? Not marine biology or anything like that?”

“Nope!”

“So how’d you learn everything you know?” Virgil asked.

“Oh! Well, I just did a lot of googling I guess! There’s a big ‘ol list of all the different species we’ve got on the website and I just went down one at a time checking them out.”

“Got it. Thanks,” Virgil said.

Patton held out a thumbs-up before running off. Virgil jotted that down in his head. 

As soon as he got home, he went straight to his computer, pulling up the Sanders Aquarium page and clicking on the tab labeled “Animals”. The list seemed to be about a mile long. Virgil often forgot just how many different creatures were there. He tried to remember which species of fish they kept in that first room of the aquarium but found his mind blanking. After a bit of clicking around, he found a page that had the aquarium’s animals organized by room instead of name.

_ Perfect. _

For the next who-knows-how-many hours, Virgil was hunched over his computer typing one fish name after another into google, hopping from site to site learning as much about each as he could. He felt like he was back in school the night before a quiz he knew he shouldn’t have put off studying for, cramming as much knowledge into his mind as he could. Luckily, after years of procrastination, he’d become a sort of expert at last minute memorization, and far more of the facts than he expected seemed to stick in his mind. 

When he finally pulled his attention away from the screen, it was much later than he realized, the clock just reaching 2 am. He knew he’d be tired, but he was also sure he’d have far more answers to provide the next day, which easily made up for that in his mind.

* * *

The next day, Virgil downed an extra cup of coffee in the morning hoping to make up for the lost sleep (though it didn’t do much). He found himself glancing at the clock just a bit more often than usual, waiting for it to make its way to 11 am, the time Patton came to ask Virgil if he could hand off his station behind the desk to him and the time Logan had shown up both yesterday and the day before. 

Today Patton came first.

“Virgil! You look absolutely phenomenal today, I love the fun swoopy thing your hair is doing!” Patton said.

“Oh, Pat!” Virgil said. “Is it alright if you take your turn behind the desk again today? At least for a little while.”

“Well, sure kiddo!” he said. “If you don’t mind me askin’, what’s behind your sudden interest in manning the exhibits. I mean, I’m glad you seem to want to spend more time with visitors and the fishies, but the Virgil I’m used to is a much bigger fan of desk duty.”

Before Virgil could decide whether or not he wanted to tell Patton why it was exactly that he wanted to be out in the exhibit, a familiar face approached the desk. 

“Virgil, it’s nice to see you again,” Logan said.

“Logan!” Virgil said, a little caught off guard. He paused a moment to get into his customer service mindset. “Just the general admission stamp again?”

“Yes,” Logan said, already holding out his hand.

Virgil took it, a not unfamiliar heat forming on his cheeks as he held Logan’s hand in his, printing the stamp design designated for Fridays on it. He paused for a brief moment to look at the little octopus before immediately dropping Logan’s hand, worried he’d held it too long after the stamp. When he looked up at Logan and saw his usual expression as he looked at the octopus himself, he was reassured that it was all in his head.

“Thank you,” Logan said, and just like that, he was heading to the first exhibit.

“Patton,” Virgil said, as soon as Logan disappeared into the room, his gaze still lingering where Logan had just left his sight. “Handle the desk, okay?”

Virgil awaited a response, turning to Patton after several seconds of silence to see the most cartoonishly large grin taking over his face.

“Virgil,” Patton said, stretching out the first syllable of his name and raising his eyebrows. Virgil could feel the heat in his face grow.

“It’s not- this isn’t- Pat, whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”

Patton giggled, holding his hands up in front of his smile. “Somebody’s got a cr-”

“It’s nothing, Patton,” Virgil hissed, lightly punching Patton’s shoulder.

“Okay, if you insist,” Patton said, holding his hands up in surrender, but still unable to control his giggles. “Sure, we can switch now so you can go flirt with Mr. Necktie.”

Virgil was sure his face was bright red by then. Instead of further trying to convince Patton he did not have a crush on “Mr. Necktie” he simply muttered a simple thank you and quickly headed towards the first exhibit.

After spotting Logan looking at a tank in the far corner of the room, Virgil started going over the facts he knew about some of the fish in that tank in his head while he walked over to where Logan stood. As he did, Logan turned to him for just a moment, giving a short wave before returning his attention to the glass. Virgil picked up his pace.

“Virgil,” Logan said simply, still watching the fish.

“Logan. Any fish you’re looking at in particular?” 

Logan smiled. “At the moment I’m examining the arc-eye hawkfish.”

Virgil nodded. “It’s pretty, huh? They were named after that dark ring that can be seen around their eye,” Virgil said, as Logan leaned a bit closer to the glass. “This guy is the only arc-eye in here because his species can be quite territorial, so we can only have one of them to a tank.”

“Hmm,” Logan hummed. Virgil took it as a sign to continue.

“The scientific name for them is  Paracirrhites arcatus. The hawk in their name comes from the way they swoop down and pounce on unsuspecting prey before they have time to escape, just like hawks do. Their lack of a swim bladder helps them move so rapidly to catch prey, but it also means they’ll sink if they stop swimming.”

“Fascinating.”

Virgil turned away from the glass for just a second to look at Logan. He was still smiling, a sort of spark in his eyes as his gaze darted around the tank, glancing from fish to fish. So much of his appearance and resting face was sharp angles and cold expressions, so it was nice to see the sort of softness that seemed to overtake him when he was peering through the glass. For a brief moment, Logan looked to Virgil. Virgil immediately returned his gaze to the fish, but Logan’s lingering expression in his mind urged him to continue.

“That blue fish there, most people recognize as the type of fish Dory is. It’s a royal blue tang, or Paracanthurus hepatus. They’ve famously got this bright yellow color on them, but often with age and stress, they’ll grow to be darker shades of blue and violet.”

“It’s nice to see these ones are still yellow.”

“Yes. They’re pretty young still. Some older ones in another tank are colored a bit darker.”

“From age and not stress I would hope.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “For the most part these little guys are harmless, but if they’re ever in danger they’ve got sharp venomous spines on their tails they can raise and use to stab any predators. Luckily, they don’t have to worry too much about that here.”

“You seem to know quite a lot about the marine life here,” Logan said, glancing Virgil’s way.

The heat behind his cheeks from earlier returned as he said “Well, it’s all a part of the job I guess.” 

It wasn’t, at least not for his position and at least not knowing the amount he did after a full night of research, but Logan let out a simple chuckle and returned his attention to the glass so Virgil could assume he wasn’t aware of that. 

This Friday was a relatively slow one, so Virgil was able to follow Logan around that first room, walking from tank to tank, only ever pausing once or twice to help other visitors with their maps or ask a parent to get a handle on their child who was banging her hands on the glass. With every little tidbit of information Virgil relayed to Logan, he would watch his smile grow a little wider or sit a little deeper as he continued to look at whichever fish they were talking about. He would hum his acknowledgment of every fact he heard and ask follow up questions every now again that Virgil was always relieved to have the answer to. 

Eventually, they’d made their way all around the room, peered through the glass of every tank, and Virgil had talked about nearly a dozen different fish. Logan made his way into the second room and Virgil followed instinctually, only realizing once he had that he knew nothing about the creatures in here. He’d only researched those in the first room and this one was far more diverse, containing marine life beyond just fish.

“I’ve uh,” Virgil said, catching Logan’s attention as he was making his way to the first habitat in the room, “got to get back to the desk now.”

“Oh,” Logan said. “Well, thank you for teaching me about all those fish. It was very informative.”

“Mmhmm. No problem.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Virgil.”

Virgil nodded before quickly turning back towards the entrance and making his way through the first room into the lobby and to the desk where Patton sat humming some song Virgil didn’t recognize while spinning around in his chair.

“Oh, back already, huh?” Patton said, perking up when he caught sight of Virgil. “How did things go with Mr. Necktie?”

As Patton raised his eyebrows at Virgil again, already seemingly on the verge of breaking out into a fit of giggles, Virgil figured there was no use trying to hide this from him when he’d obviously already connected the dots. “Fine.”

Patton made a sound halfway between a laugh and a squeal, after which Virgil desperately shushed him, glancing around at the handful of stray visitors now looking their way in curiosity. “Come on, Pat, quiet down, it’s no huge deal.”

“What happened? Did you flirt with him? Did you ask him out?” Patton gasped. “Did  _ he  _ ask  _ you  _ out?”

“Patton, come on, I just met the guy, obviously none of that happened. I just walked around the first room with him telling him about the fish in there.”

Patton excitedly clapped his hands, beaming at Virgil. “Was he impressed? Did he compliment your endless fish knowledge?”

“God no. He just told me I seemed to know a lot and that was pretty much it.”

“Did he leave? Is that why you’re back already?”

“No, he just moved on to the next room is all.”

“Virgil Woods! Why didn’t you keep walking through with him? Who knows, if you were still with him now maybe you two would already be in smooch town,” Patton said, all his giggles finally coming out.

Virgil felt himself growing red yet again. “We wouldn’t be in- that’s not what would have happened! I literally met the guy two days ago, Patton! And I had to go because I don’t know shit about the fish in that room, I would have had nothing to talk about.”

“Oh! That’s what you were researching last night then, huh? Reading up on the fish to impress your one true love?”

“Yeah, I guess. But don’t call him that!” Virgil said.

Patton specifically avoided responding to that last bit and Virgil knew he’d be hearing Logan referred to as that far more in the future. “Well, you’ve got this whole weekend off right? Why not use that time to look into all the creatures you didn’t last night? That way you can walk with him through the entire aquarium and hold hands the whole time.”

“That’s… not a bad idea, Pat,” Virgil said. Before Patton could interrupt him he added “Not the hand holding! The research.”

“Whatever you say, kiddo.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, but part of him was happy to have Patton know. It was nice to have a friend he could talk to about these sorts of things without fear that they’d tell someone else (at least not on purpose), and even if Patton would likely tease Virgil about his crush until the end of time, he had no doubt that Patton would try his best to keep this knowledge to himself.

* * *

Virgil took Patton’s suggestion to heart, starting his research as soon as he got home that night. Most of the weekend flew by, filled with endless google tabs, highlighters, and bullet points. By Monday, Virgil had bags under his eyes, an assortment of ink stains on his fingers from messy pens, and a stack of notecards that, while no means perfect, contained a solid amount of information on almost every animal inside the aquarium.

Virgil was always the first to show up to work, usually arriving early. He’d rather show up to work a half-hour ahead of time each day than be late the one time something comes up on his way to work. This morning he sat behind the desk, running through his notecards one by one, trying to cement as much as he could into his mind. Most of it he seemed to have memorized, but he figured he might as well use the extra time that he had. As he looked over each card, he leaned his cheek into his palm, his elbow on the counter, his eyelids hanging heavy over his eyes, threatening to pull him into unconsciousness when he lost focus.

“Mornin’ sleepyhead!”

Virgil jumped at the sound of Remus screaming his hellos into his ear. 

Remus immediately received a soft slap to the arm from Patton. “Hey! No yelling at our clearly sleep-deprived friends!”

“Good morning to you too, Remus,” Virgil mumbled. He hadn’t even noticed them come in.

“You look half-dead, Virge! It suits you! Works well with the eyeshadow!” Remus said, hopping up to sit on the desk. From anyone else, Virgil would interpret that as an insult, but he knew Remus was most likely being genuine. 

“You alright, kiddo? You look a little more tired than usual, and you don’t typically get much sleep to begin with,” Patton said, concern coating each word.

“Yeah, no I’m good. Just stayed up pretty late this weekend,” Virgil said. 

Remus opened his mouth, but before he could make what Virgil knew was going to be a sex joke, he continued: “I was doing a lot of research.”

A huge grin slowly crept onto Patton’s face and Virgil stared at him trying to silently tell him not to reveal anything to Remus. He knew Patton wouldn’t do it on purpose, but he wasn’t exactly the world’s most subtle guy. 

“Oh, was this research to impress a certain you-know-who,” Patton said, doing his best to wink but failing miserably. Virgil immediately regretted ever talking to him about Logan.

“Ooh! Who is this mystery person Virgil’s crushing on?” Remus said, clapping his hands together.

“It’s no one it’s just… there’s this guy, Logan, who’s been coming in recently and he likes hearing about the marine life.”

“Logan! That’s the nerd lookin’ fella with the necktie?” Remus said.

Virgil silently cursed himself for saying anything before nodding. Remus knowing the guy Virgil had a crush on was the last thing he wanted. He was the complete opposite of Patton in terms of trustworthiness. 

“Yes, but I swear to god, Remus, if you tell him about this I’ll gather up all the fish that die in the next month and sneak them into your bed,” Virgil said.

“Is that a threat or a promise?”

Patton fixed Remus with one of his patented guilty mom-friend stares, and Remus rolled his eyes. “Fine! I suppose I can keep this juicy tidbit to myself for now.”

“Thank you,” Virgil said, returning his attention to his notecards.

Soon they were open and Virgil began helping visitors as they came in, studying his notecards as often as he could. The clock ticked slowly through the hours, eight to nine, nine to ten. As the hour hand finally approached 11:00 am, Patton made his way over to the desk.

Before Virgil could ask him himself Patton said, “I already know you wanna go out into the exhibits so you can talk to Mr. Necktie, kiddo. You go on ahead.”

“You know his name is Logan now, you don’t have to keep calling him that.”

“I don’t know, it sure is a fun little nickname.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, bumping Patton’s shoulder with his own as they switched places.

“See you in a bit.”

Virgil felt weird standing all alone in the first room. This was the first time in ages he’d been in here without Logan, but on top of that, the room was lacking in visitors altogether. Monday always was their slowest day. For a moment Virgil worried that Logan wasn’t going to show up at all today. Maybe his schedule was different on Mondays. Maybe he had just seen everything already and wasn’t going to be coming back at all. Maybe-

“Virgil.”

Virgil had to stop himself from nearly jumping out of his skin, as he turned to find Logan standing by his side. What was with people today and sneaking up on him like this?

“It’s nice to see you again.”

“Oh, hi, nice to see you too, Logan,” Virgil said.

“You weren’t at the front desk this morning. I was worried you weren’t working today like on Saturday and Sunday.”

“Oh, yeah,” Virgil said. “Sorry, I should have mentioned to you I wouldn’t be working over the weekend.”

“It’s quite alright, your work schedule isn’t something you have to disclose to every visitor, I just… I was just surprised is all.”

Virgil swore this was the first time he’d ever heard Logan hesitate with his words, but he quickly moved on from it as he followed Logan to the same tank he seemed to start with every day. This time Virgil told him all about a different fish from the one he’d talked about the first time. He did the same thing as they made their way from tank to tank, relaying information about a new fish each time they moved to a tank containing a fish Virgil had already covered.

And then they made their way into the next room. This one contained a wider selection of marine life, filled with tanks holding starfish and seahorses and some fish larger than the ones in the previous room, but it was still mostly smaller creatures. As Virgil and Logan walked around, tank by tank, Virgil would figure out the one that seemed to be holding Logan’s attention and list off everything he’d learned about them the past weekend. The same glow that took over Logan as Virgil talked the past Friday returned, pulling at something in Virgil’s chest that made it harder for him to maintain eye contact with Logan whenever he glanced his way in the middle of an explanation.

The next room was full of a lot of larger animals, and, even though the room was already a lot bigger than the rest, because of the size of the creatures, it contained far fewer tanks. This was where a good portion of the sharks was held. As Virgil began to talk about one shark, in particular, the bull shark, listing off facts about their diet, Logan nodded.

“Mm, Remus was telling me about them the other day,” Logan said.

Virgil felt himself deflate ever so slightly. As much as he hated to admit it, he was immediately jealous of Remus for talking to Logan about the animals just like he did. 

“He was very… enthusiastic to say the least about them being considered by many to be the most dangerous shark.”

Virgil chuckled. “Yeah, that does sound like Remus. But don’t worry. Sharks aren’t nearly as dangerous as most people believe.”

“Not at all,” Logan said. “After Jaws was released in 1975 people grew terrified of them and began to view them as these killing machines, but in actuality, they kill fewer people each year than cows and even falling vending machines, and is it logical to be actively fearful of either of those? No.”

“Really passionate about sharks, huh?” Virgil asked, his smile growing.

“I suppose I am, though I would be passionate about the unjust perception of any form of marine life viewed as unfairly as sharks are.”

Virgil nodded before continuing with his explanations. It was nice to hear Logan talking about the sharks. Virgil was always the one informing him as they walked around the aquarium, but listening to Logan instead of being the one speaking was just as nice.

Eventually, they got through all the tanks in the room but one in the very back right next to the entrance to the next one. Logan stood in front of it, clearly examining the zebra sharks held inside as they moved around the tank. 

Virgil went to start talking about them before quickly realizing that he didn’t quite remember the information he’d learned over the weekend about the zebra sharks. He checked every corner of his mind, looking for something about their growth or their diet, but nothing came up. With a silent sigh of defeat, Virgil pulled out his notecards from his pocket. He didn’t want to have to check them while he was walking around with Logan. He wanted to seem infinitely knowledgeable on all the marine life they had at the aquarium, and he certainly didn’t want to give away the fact that he’d only recently learned most of what he was saying, but he would much rather look a little less smart than leave Logan hanging when he was so clearly interested in the zebra sharks in particular.

“What are those?” Logan asked, staring at the stack of cards Virgil now held in his hand.

_ Shit, he thinks I’m stupid. He thinks I’m an idiot who shouldn’t be working here if I can’t even remember facts about the animals I’m supposed to be teaching people about. _

“Just some notecards. I, uh, I use them to help me remember stuff about the animals.”

“That’s smart,” Logan said. “And they look nice. Do you mind if I take a look at them?” 

Virgil simply nodded before handing him the stack, the feeling of Logan’s fingers brushing against his own sticking to his skin. Logan flipped the top card over, examining a few others in the stack with bright eyes before handing them back.

“They’re very well made,” Logan said. If Virgil trusted himself not to be making it up he’d swear he saw Logan blushing.

“Yeah, I spent a long time on them.”

“It shows.”

“Virgil!” Remus said, startling Virgil as he suddenly peeked around the door frame to the next room. “Why don’t you let me take ‘ol Logan off your hands here? After all, I’m the one who’s supposed to be supervising this exhibit.”

Virgil went to say no, but Remus was right. Virgil was supposed to walk around the first two exhibits helping visitors and Remus was supposed to be in charge of the next three. Though it wasn’t technically against the rules for them to switch if one employee was busy with a visitor, Virgil knew if he mentioned that Remus would turn it into a big deal and try to make it obvious to Logan exactly why Virgil wanted to be the one to continue with him through the aquarium. 

“Oh, uh, sure,” Virgil said, biting back a collection of rude nicknames he had for Remus sitting in his throat.

Remus grinned. “Perfect!”

“Oh, alright,” Logan said, and Virgil almost thought he could hear notes of disappointment in his voice. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Virgil.”

“Yeah, see ya, Logan.”

Logan went into the other room, Remus quickly following behind right after giving Virgil a thumbs up and a wink. Virgil immediately dreaded figuring out what that was supposed to mean. Even though Remus had promised not to tell Logan, he wouldn’t put it above him to do it anyway the moment they were around the corner. Instead of sticking around and risking overhearing, Virgil booked it back to the front desk to switch back with Patton.

“How’d it go? How’d it go?” Patton said as he hopped off the desk chair.

“Fine, it was fine,” Virgil said, settling back into the position he was so familiar with. “Remus took over about halfway through and he’s probably telling Logan all about my stupid crush right now but besides that, it went perfect.”

“Now, come on kiddo, Remus promised he wouldn’t say anything.”

“Right, because he’s the most trustworthy guy in the world.”

Patton hesitated. “Maybe not, but I don’t think this is a line he’d cross. He might not be the… most considerate person sometimes, but he wouldn’t do anything to risk losing his friends, and he knows if he betrayed your trust he would lose both of us.”

“I guess you’re right,” Virgil said, grateful to hear that Patton wouldn’t stay friends with Remus if he ever were to do something like that. “I don’t know I’m just worried he’ll say something that gives it away even if he’s not telling him exactly what it is.”

“Well, for now, you’ll just have to trust that Remus is smart enough not to do that.”

Virgil sighed, dropping his chin into his palm. 

“If it makes you feel better kiddo, I’ll talk to Remus while we’re closing up today and ask him to let you switch areas when you’re walking around with Logan. That way, in the future, he doesn’t get the chance to let anything slip.”

Virgil smiled. Patton always seemed to know what to say to calm him down. “Thanks, Pat. That would be great.”

Patton beamed at him. “Anything for my bestest pal! I gotta get going now. See ya later.”

“See ya.”

* * *

The next day Logan and Virgil ran through the same routine. Logan met Virgil in the first exhibit, saying it was nice to see him again and unknowingly causing Virgil’s chest to fill with butterflies. Virgil told Logan everything he’d learned about a new fish in each tank, checking every so often to make sure Logan seemed interested. He always did, bearing a big grin with excitement in his eyes. Occasionally Logan would chime in with his own opinions on a creature they were looking at. Every time he sounded so intelligent, Virgil would think to himself, like he’d been running through his words like lines for weeks waiting for the day he’d say them. Virgil would find flickers of worry appearing in his brain that Logan thought he sounded dumb as he relayed all the information he’d researched onto him, but they were quickly put out when he turned to see how intently Logan listening to him, taking in every word like it was the last he’d ever get to hear. It made something inside Virgil melt every time, thawing out even the coldest parts of him.

Just like Patton said he would, he’d talked to Remus, and this time when Virgil and Logan reached the third exhibit, he simply told Virgil he’d keep an eye on the first rooms, saying it would be no trouble since there weren’t many people there anyway. Virgil could tell it was a line Patton had fed to him, but Logan didn’t seem to notice as they moved on.

The same routine continued through the next two rooms, which contained some of the creatures considered the oddest or creepiest by the average visitor, but Logan smiled at them, fascinated by everything Virgil could tell him about them just the same as the rest. While looking at an animal in one of the last tanks in the room, Virgil slipped in a joke he’d spent most of the morning thinking up, and, to his delight, Logan laughed. Virgil had worried that the necktie and serious resting expression were both signs that he wasn’t a guy who appreciated humor much, but it seemed he was wrong. Or maybe it was just marine-based humor specifically. Or maybe it was the fact that Virgil was the one telling the joke. Even though he was sure the last assumption was simply wishful thinking, it made him smile imagining it.

The last room held two large tanks, one on either wall, with their largest creatures kept inside, both sharks. Logan’s eyes lit up when he saw them, even though Virgil knew he’d seen them just as many times as he had the rest. He really was a fan of sharks. After Virgil had finished talking about the first tank, receiving more than the usual amount of additions from Logan who clearly had a favorite type of animal, he realized that he had completely forgotten about one of the animals they had in the aquarium when he was researching, the second shark and the last creature in the whole place. He hadn’t been in this room for so long he didn’t even remember it when he was researching and he must have accidentally looked over it when going through all the species listed on their website.

“What about this one?” Logan asked as Virgil stood silently by his side.

“I, uh, I actually haven’t researched this species yet,” Virgil said, trying not to let his worries convince him Logan would hate him for not knowing anything about this shark.

“Oh,” Logan said, a crease forming between his eyebrows. “Do you not have a notecard made for it yet?”

Virgil shook his head. “Sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize.”

“I know loads about this guy!” Apparently, Remus couldn’t approach him without startling him these days, Virgil thought to himself. “Why don’t you hand this dork off to me?”

Virgil would have to talk to Remus later today himself. “Sure thing Remus.”

“Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Virgil,” Logan said.

“See ya.”

“Hey, Logan, do you know what dork  _ really  _ means?” Virgil heard as he walked out the exit of the final exhibit and into the gift shop before making his way back into the first room, completing the loop. 

Instead of returning to the desk, against his better judgment, he decided to stay in the exhibit, near the entrance to the gift shop, waiting for Logan to make his way out. Maybe he’d catch sight up him through the doorway and wave goodbye. Or maybe he’d overhear Remus revealing all of Virgil’s deepest darkest secrets to Logan once they were done looking at the shark. Virgil decided to roll the dice.

After ten minutes or so, Virgil saw Logan and Remus come into the gift shop, Remus talking about something Virgil just barely couldn’t hear. As soon as they did, Remus looked Virgil’s direction, making his way towards him.

“Oh, Virgil! We were just talking about you!”

_ Fuck. _

Logan wasn’t far behind Remus, but his expression didn’t seem to be that of someone about to say “I just figured out that you have a massive crush on me and now I never want to talk to you ever again.”

“You know a remarkable amount about the marine life in here for someone hired so recently with no previous experience,” Logan said, smiling brightly.

Virgil found himself mirroring Logan’s smile immediately. “Oh, yeah, I guess I do,” he said, relief washing over him as any fear that he had before was replaced by swarms of butterflies.

“I have to be going now,” Logan said. “But I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said, seemingly unable to get out any other words.

He watched as Logan weaved his way through the gift shop to the exit on the other side, letting a breath go as soon as the door shut behind him.

“Boy do you look red!” Remus said, slapping Virgil on the back. “You’d blend right in with the pacific octopus.”

“What were you saying about me?” Virgil hissed.

“Relax,” Remus said. “He just asked how long you’d been working for. We barely even talked about you before we went into the gift shop.”

Virgil sighed. “So you didn’t say anything to him about…”

“About how you’ve got a massive crush on him? No that didn’t come up, unfortunately. Though there’s always next time.”

Virgil gave his shoulder a punch that was significantly harder than the ones he gave Patton. “Patton will stop talking to you forever if you do that, you get that right?”

“Oh, yeah, I do. Real shame. Patton’s always ruining the fun by looking after your feelings.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, starting to head towards the entrance to switch back with Patton. Before he could leave though, Remus started talking to him again.

“Hey, Virge, how the fuck do you get that guy to shut up most of the time?” Remus asked.

Virgil turned around to face him and was surprised to find not a hint of insincerity in his expression. “What do you mean? Logan usually just listens to me talk about all the marine life while we walk around.”

“That’s what I’m talking about! How do you get him to do that instead of lecturing you about every single creature you so much as glance at? You know all his ‘fun facts’ are not very fun at all. They’re usually boring as hell.”

“He’s never done that before,” Virgil said. “He just listens to me talk about all the surface level information I have on different fish. He doesn’t seem to know much about anything beyond a bit about sharks.”

“Well, I don’t think we’re talking about the same Logan because the one you hand off to me doesn’t know how to shut up and seems to know just about everything there is to know. I’d say he knows more than I do on most things.”

For a moment Virgil wondered what on earth Remus was talking about before concluding that he was just doing what he always did and was messing with Virgil in any way he could. He was probably just trying to get Virgil to overthink everything with Logan.

“Yeah, alright. Whatever, Remus,” Virgil said, turning back around and heading out the door.

* * *

Wednesday the routine was the same. Virgil was already quite attached to their little routine, despite it having been under a week since it began, but every day since it had, walking around with Logan had been the highlight of his shift, something he looked forward to since first thing in the morning and thought about doing the next day the moment Logan left. 

This time around there was one time where he had to reference his notecards in the very first room, but he was still getting better overall. Every day he continued running through his cards for at least an hour at home. Soon enough he’d be able to leave them on his desk without worry. 

The night before he’d done his research on the shark he’d forgotten about the first time around and had quite a lot to say about it. When they got to that tank, Virgil prepared to start what could only properly be described as a full-on speech, but before he began Logan cleared his throat.

“I made you something,” Logan said.

Virgil felt himself grow as red as Remus had pointed out him being the day before. “Oh?”

Logan nodded, pulling something out of his back pocket before extending his hand to Virgil. In it, he held a perfectly clean and neat stack of notecards, just like the ones Virgil carried with him every time Logan came in. For a moment Virgil just stared at them before taking them from Logan and examining them in his own hands. Each card had several paragraphs, diagrams, and bullet points written in neat dark blue ink. Logan’s handwriting was infinitely better than Virgil’s and each card was completely filled with notes. There were six in total and each one contained information on the shark they were standing in front of now.

“Woah, these are amazing,” Virgil said, almost to himself.

“I’m glad you like them.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” Virgil asked, flipping through the first half of the stack of cards one at a time to admire Logan’s hard work. “Don’t tell me you did all this research for me?”

Virgil didn’t mean to let that last bit slip out, but when he looked up at Logan he seemed nervous more than anything else.

“I’m a marine biologist, actually,” he said.

Virgil stared at him, eyes wide. “You’re… what?”

“I’m sorry,” Logan said immediately, running a hand through his hair. “I felt bad having you teach me all this stuff I already knew, but you just seemed so excited to tell me, and I suppose I enjoyed hearing you talk about all the marine life. I didn’t mean to trick you or anything I just didn’t want to interrupt you or ruin our little routine.”

Virgil continued to stare at him, running over everything Logan had just said in his head. 

_ He knew everything I’ve told him already. And he didn’t say anything just to preserve our routine. He likes hearing me talk. Seeing me excited. _

If Virgil wasn’t blushing before he certainly was now.

“Well, now you have any information you might need about this shark,” Logan said, gesturing back towards the cards. Virgil had forgotten he was holding them. “For when you’re talking to other visitors.”

Virgil didn’t talk to any other visitors, not like he did with Logan. He almost said that out loud then and there, but he couldn’t convince his mouth to form any words. He looked back down at the cards quickly flipping through them one more time. When he looked up, the expression on Logan’s face made him finally realize he hadn’t responded to a single word he’d said yet.

“Oh, thank you,” Virgil said, holding up the notecards. “For these.”

Logan nodded.

“So… I guess you won’t need me to walk around the aquarium with you anymore then, huh?” Virgil asked.

“I suppose not,” Logan said, before clearing his throat again, “but I certainly would appreciate the company. As I said, I would hate to disrupt our routine.”

Virgil felt a grin take shape on his face, and he nodded.

Logan grinned right back before glancing back towards the tank they were still stood next to. “You should take a look at those notecards when you get the chance...” He paused before following up with “to let me know if they work well for you. I’m not sure how you usually organize your notecards so…”

After only ever seeing Logan composed and confident, it shocked Virgil just how nervous Logan seemed now. He must have thought that he wouldn’t like the notecards, Virgil assumed.

“Alright. Thank you, again,” Virgil said.

“It was no problem,” Logan said, looking back at Virgil. After a pause, he cleared his throat yet again. “I’d better get going then,” Logan said. “I’ll see you tomorrow Virgil.”

“See ya,” Virgil called after Logan as he immediately made his way to the exit.

After a moment of standing there, still as a statue, partially in shock and partially to give the fluttering in his chest a second to settle, Virgil pocketed the note cards and hurried to the front desk where Patton was excitedly chatting with a girl who looked no older than seven about all the cool fish she’d get to see while her mother examined a map of the aquarium.

When Patton caught sight of Virgil the smile on his face somehow grew despite how big it had already been while he was talking with the kid. Virgil’s expression must have given him away.

“Hey, why don’t you go ask mommy about which fishies you’ll get to see first?” Patton said to the little girl who ran to her mother’s side.

“Pat!” Virgil said, trying to keep his voice relatively low despite his excitement so as not to disrupt the customer.

“What happened, what happened, what happened!? I can tell something happened!” Patton did not make the same effort to keep his voice down.

“Did you know Logan was a marine biologist?” Virgil asked.

“Well, sure! He mentioned it to me when I was helping him figure out the layout of this place the first day he came here.” Patton’s cheerful expression shifted to one of confusion. “Wait, did  _ you  _ know that?”

“No!” Virgil said, letting his volume go back to a normal level as soon as the mother and daughter left the lobby. “I didn’t think he knew anything about marine life, much less that he was a fucking expert on the stuff.”

“He didn’t mention it? That was pretty much the first thing he said to me once we got talking.”

“No, he…” Virgil paused a moment, that familiar flutter tugging at his insides again. “He didn’t want to tell me because he liked listening to me talk about all the animals myself.”

Patton hopped up and down, grabbing Virgil’s hands and giggling as he did so. “Oh my goodness, Virgil, that’s so sweet!”

Virgil looked around to make sure no one was in the area beforehand, but couldn’t help but slip into Patton’s excitement with him. “I know! I could barely even speak when he told me that.”

“He so totally likes you!”

“I don’t know about that, but he at least likes me, you know, platonically,” Virgil said. “Oh! How could I forget?”

Virgil pulled the stack of note cards out from his pocket, holding them up in all their glory for Patton to see. “He made me these notecards on one of the sharks I’d forgotten to research after seeing the ones I made for myself. That’s how we got to the topic of him being a marine biologist.”

Patton immediately snatched them from Virgil’s hand. “Hey, Pat, please be careful with those.”

“Don’t you worry, kiddo, I just wanna take a look at them. Wouldn’t wanna go damaging your future husband’s handy work.”

That made Virgil cover his face with his hands, which got an excited fit of giggles out of Patton. 

“Don’t say stuff like that, Pat, it’s just notecards. I still don’t know if he  _ likes me _ likes me like…  _ that, _ ” Virgil said. “Even though I know he knows everything I’ve been telling him now, he says he still wants me to walk around the aquarium with him when he visits because he likes having the company. I have no idea what I’ll talk about now though. I was really leaning on the whole ‘teaching him about marine life’ thing for conversation topics.” Before Virgil could push it down a wave of worry washed over him. “Oh geez, what if he thinks I’m boring now that I’m not teaching him anything? What if he thought all my facts were interesting and now that I’m not talking about those anymore he realizes I’m not interesting myself at all?”

“Uh, Virgil, did you look through these notecards already?” Patton asked, interrupting Virgil’s spiraling.

“Yeah, mostly.”

“Did you like…  _ really  _ read them? Specifically the last one, on the back?”

“No, I- what’s on the last one?”

Patton’s giggles returned as he turned around the card he was currently looking at to reveal a message written in bright red ink. 

_ If you’d like to talk about something other than marine life sometime, perhaps over coffee: _

Underneath that was a string of numbers with a little heart doodled at the end of them. Logan’s phone number. He was asking him out on a date.

Virgil snatched the card from Patton’s hand to get a closer look at it, ignoring the blush he could feel coating his face as he reread it. 

“Holy shit,” Virgil said.

“Definitely seems like he likes you,” Patton said.

Virgil couldn’t help but continue staring at the card, rereading and rereading it as if it would turn to dust as soon as he looked away. It definitely did.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first-ever sanders sides fic I've posted and I'm kinda nervous about it but also I really like how this turned out and its the proudest I've been about a fic in quite a bit! I've been on a big analogical kick lately, so hopefully this won't be my last one. I think it shows how little I actually know about marine life and aquariums myself, but fingers crossed that nothing included is glaringly incorrect. (also thank you Lexicon, if you're reading this, for helping me with ideas and edits and the title <3)  
> My tumblr is peach-p0t, I post about fics sometimes there if you're interested.


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